Jon has been working on his Family Life merit badge for Boy Scouts. He has to complete two projects within the merit badge requirements, both of which must help the family. One of Jon’s projects was to clean out our garage. The floor of our garage was littered with outdoor toys that sat in a big pile, collecting dust. The kids have grown and they don’t use many of the toys anymore.
So we asked Jon to clean the garage. Part of the task was to sort through the toys and give the ones that were still in good condition to charity.
We regularly clean our house out of things that we don’t use anymore. We have a favorite charity in town that we like to take our things to. We don’t take our used items to Goodwill – we aren’t sure where our stuff really ends up. We do take our items to a local church and preschool in a neighborhood where the residents are so happy to see the things that we give and use the items right away.
Jon and the other kids know all about the charity, about being philanthropic, about recycling things that we don’t use anymore for the benefit of others.
My kids also know about the related tax benefits.
Jon, with this project, was required to document each item that we were giving away and putting a price tag on it. He knew that the value had to be a ‘garage-sale value’ as recommended by the Internal Revenue Service. And Jon knew that this step was important because our family would get to take a deduction on our income taxes for the items we had given away.
So Jon dutifully listed each scooter and each parachute and each hockey stick, applying a value to them.
And now I am incorporating those figures into our family’s tax return.
Thank you, Jon!
